A Letter to the MTA

I believe Boston allows dogs on the trains and buses during off peak hours as long as they are leashed and well-mannered. Maybe checking out how that city has handled the obvious issues (poop, aggressive dogs, scared people, etc.) would help give you a model for suggestions. Also, the letter should be cc'd to the mayor's office when it is sent to the MTA and we should try to get as many signatures as possible on identical letters before it goes.

I would just like to agree with you. I work in an emergency vet hospital and we get countless calls with people needing to get to us and not having any way to get around besides the train...and trying to find a cab at 2 am that will take your 100 pound dog somewhere is not easy! Then these poor people are wasting valuable time and possibly hurting there babies cause they don't have the money to shell out for a pet taxi!

I don't understand why they aren't allowed on the train either. Dogs are not allowed on the Staten Island train but they are allowed on the Staten Island Ferry as long as they are muzzled. I agree with not being able to to a dog into a crate when he is 75lbs like my monster. But being muzzled in a contained area should not be a problem, no matter what breed. =)

I absolutly agree. I live in Detroit and visit NYC often to see my girlfriend in Fort Green. I plan to move to Brooklyn sometime in 08 and think it may be in my best interest to keep my car despite how user friendly public transportation is outside of the dog issue. Keep up the good fight.

Yeah, I had the same problem. Boris is a 60lbs APBT mix. His crate does not have wheels and is too big to carry even if it had a handle. The subway is my transportation. I do have a solution for all of you though, as long as you are willing to bend your morals a little bit. I purchased an ESA service dog tag from this site: http://www.servicedogtags.com/ and now I take Boris on the train with me wherever I need to or want to go. I do try to restrict it to times when I only need to though because I feel bad about taking advantage of this service. It is NOT a real service tag, but it WILL get you and your dog on the train. I have never had any problems with the conductors and only one incident with an officer. The officer was a rookie and did not know the laws about ESA dogs though - I wasn't about to argue. Do not bother purchasing one of these cards unless your dog is well behaved and can actually pass as a service animal. I've seen people do it anyway and it is just so obvious. The more well behaved your dog is, the better your chance is of getting on that train.
Anyway, I will leave you with this link and hopefully some of you might find it useful. Good luck, everyone!